A Brief History of Harvard and the MLB

With the Major League Baseball season officially starting today, and Harvard’s own baseball team toiling at 3-16, it’s a fair question to ask what—if any—relationship the Crimson and the big leagues have had over the years.

In February, we discussed Frank Hermann ’06 and his foray into the majors, pitching for the Cleveland Indians.

Hermann is the first Harvard baseball player to reach the majors since Jeff Musselman ’85 suited up for the Blue Jays and Mets between 1985 and 1990. But before Musselman, the Crimson had a pretty extensive history of major leaguers.

It all began with Jim Tyng ’76—that’s 1876—who played three games for the Boston Red Caps in 1879, and then returned to play one game for his hometown Philadelphia Phillies in 1888. Needless to say, he was not one of Harvard’s more prolific or successful athletes.

During the deadball era (everything before 1919), the Crimson was a veritable feeder program for the majors, sending six ballplayers to the big leagues. In the 92 years since, Harvard has only managed ten more.

But these were not the glory days of Crimson baseball. Between 1968 and 1974, Harvard went to the College World Series four times, sending two members of those teams to the bigs: pitcher Ray Peters ’68 and catcher Pete Varney ’71.

Peters only played one year, for the Milwaukee Brewers, and ended his career 0-2. Varney lasted five years, playing 69 games for the Chicago White Sox and Atlanta Braves.

The longest tenured Harvard graduate to play in the majors was third baseman Eddie Grant ’05, who was known to fans as “Harvard Eddie.” Grant spent 10 years in the big leagues and batted .249 for the Phillies, Cincinnati Reds and New York Giants. In 1915, Grant retired and joined the Army. He died three years later in the Battle of Meuse-Argonne, France while fighting in World War 1.

With a history of MLB participation and Hermann in the Indians bullpen, perhaps Harvard’s next major leaguer is on the current Crimson roster.